Rothman speaks about health care, redevelopment, transportation, other issues

By Jeff Fucci
Senior Reporter

LYNDHURST — Ninth District Congressman Steve Rothman spoke candidly on several of his positions while addressing resident concerns at the 10th of 19 “Listening Sessions” at the Senior Center on Aug. 10.

Photo by Jeff Fucci   Ninth District Congressman Steve Rothman (D-Fair Lawn) answers resident questions at a “Listening Session” held at the Lyndhurst Senior Center on Aug. 10.

After a moment of silence for fallen soldiers in Iraq, as well as police, fire and ambulance personnel on the home-front, Rothman read through a pile of questions, asking those in attendance to elaborate in what he said was an effort to get to know the people he represents.

Rothman, who has served in Congress for nine years and currently serves on the Committee on Appropriations for distributing funds, stressed the bipartisanship of many of his progresses in Washington, among them bringing $864,886,328 in federal dollars back to the 37 Northern New Jersey towns of the Ninth District.

“We’re getting better than we’ve ever gotten,” Rothman said.

One of the main focuses of the funding has been transportation, particularly improvements to Route 17, the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, efforts to combat flooding and the design of plans for an additional train line under the Hudson River to a new Manhattan station north of Penn.

Rothman said the project is progressing slowly because it “would take 1/3 of the nation’s rail money for the next six years” to build.

“We’re providing even more intra-New Jersey trains and getting people to the edge of the Hudson,” he said, adding, “but you can only load so many people on one train.”

Addressing a broad request for his stance on property taxes, Rothman blamed local school boards, as well as the federal government, for burdening taxpayers with programs like “No Child Left Behind,” which he alleged left the state $40 billion in debt.

“It was all talk,” Rothman said. “We here in New Jersey don’t need that sort of program, and the teachers hate it because they end up teaching the test.”

Resident John Sedlock expressed worry about redevelopment in the Meadowlands, calling current laws “a blatant outrageous cry for the purpose of creating tax ratables” and former plans in the township to replace railroad tracks, homes and a graveyard with new building “an irresponsible act that we could have never afforded.”

“The misuse of the law that occurred in this municipality had many of the seniors frightened,” Sedlock said, to which Rothman responded that he should document such abuses and send them to his office in the future.

Rothman also assured seniors that Social Security would remain in place as long as they lived, returning “100 cents on the dollar until 2052, when it will start paying 75 cents,” and told “notch babies” born between 1917-1921 that he had lobbied unsuccessfully to get them a lump sum payment of $5,000.

Rothman’s opinion was particularly strong on healthcare, where he chided a system that he said scares the brightest students away from attending medical school and forces doctors to sue insurance companies for payments they never receive.

“I believe we need universal healthcare,” Rothman said, adding that America spends double what most industrialized European nations and Canada spend to pay the bills of private doctors.

“There’s tremendous waste and bloat in this system,” Rothman said.

Rothman is a Democrat out of Fair Lawn. He was formerly mayor of Englewood and an attorney for 16 years.